


Laced Drink

by TetrodotoxinB



Series: Whumptober 2019 [21]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Anxiety, Crying, Day 21, No Graphic Content, Prompt: Laced Drink, References to things Danny has seen at work, References to things which could have been, These references allude to noncon, Victim is a minor, Whumptober 2019, date-rape drugs, nonconsensual drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 08:48:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TetrodotoxinB/pseuds/TetrodotoxinB
Summary: Grace goes to a party and it doesn't go well. Danny and Steve are there to pick up the pieces.





	Laced Drink

**Author's Note:**

> There is non-consensual drug use in the fic involving a minor (Grace). No further assault occurs, but there is non-specific speculation on what could have been by Danny. Please use discretion in reading if you feel you might be triggered. You can also hit me up with specific questions in the comments (log out to use the anon function on commenting).
> 
> Beta'd by [Secret_Library98](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secret_Library98/pseuds/Secret_Library98).

Danny’s first clue that something is wrong isn’t Grace’s panicked phone call, it’s that she’s at a party in the first place. All the phone call does is move his worrying from “paranoia” to “reasonably concerned father.” 

“Grace?”

“Dad, I- I-” She sounds like she’s upset, and Danny, who did not put on pajamas or take off his shoes for this exact reason, already has his service weapon and car keys and is running out to the Camaro.

“Hey, hey, it’s gonna be okay, monkey. I’m coming to get you,” Danny says with false calm. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Grace sniffles. “I think someone drugged me. I’m wearing that nail polish you gave me, but I forgot to check my drink before I had some. I only had like half the cup before I remembered, but when I checked, my nail polish turned black!”

Danny is absolutely ready to kill someone over this, but he swallows his anger because Grace sounds terrified and a homicidal father won’t help keep her calm. “That’s not your fault, Grace. You shouldn’t even have to wear that nail polish. I’m not mad, monkey. All I want is for you to be okay. Are you safe? Has anyone hurt you?"

"I locked myself in the bathroom upstairs. I'm safe."

Danny could debate the merits of “alone” and “on the second floor away from everyone else” as “safe” given that she’s probably already impaired, but he opts not to say anything because scaring her won’t do any good. And, as much as he hates to admit it, whatever scumbag drugged her is probably trying to find her to make good on his efforts. Getting her to give up her hiding spot isn’t going to make her any safer.

“Okay, monkey. I need to make a quick call. Can you stay on the line while I do? It won’t even take a second.”

“Yeah, Danno. I can do that.” Her voice sounds so small and so scared, and in his mind’s eye, Danny sees a seven year old Grace with skinned knees asking her Danno to please make it stop hurting.

“Okay, be right back, kiddo.”

Danny, not caring about the irony of using his phone while driving given his frequent rants about the subject, calls Steve. He picks up on the second ring.

“What’s going on, Danny?”

The moment Danny opens his mouth, every ounce of fear he’s feeling comes pouring out. “Grace is at that party. She called me saying someone drugged her. I’m on my way there now but I need backup.”

“Is she okay?” Steve asks and in the background Danny can hear Steve as he runs down the stairs, probably taking three at a time like the long-legged weirdo he is.

“I mean, aside from being drugged and there being someone at that party who’s probably trying to hunt down the girl they drugged-”

“Danny!” Steve shouts.

Danny takes a deep breath, trying to reel in his panic before it escalates even further. “She locked herself in a bathroom. Look she’s on the other line. I just- I want to find the bastard that did this but I have to take care of Grace first. I need you to take care of the other stuff for me.”

In the background, a horn blares and Danny briefly wonders what kind of war-zone driving Steve is pulling off. “Whatever you need, Danny.”

“Thanks,” Danny says, and then clicks back over to Grace.

The next ten minutes feel like they stretch into eternity. Danny is driving as fast as he can but a couple of people have knocked on the bathroom door, asking when she’s going to be done in there, and all the horrible things that Danny has seen on the job flash before his eyes because he might be close, but he’s not _there._

Five minutes out and Danny can hear her voice start to slow, slurring like Rachel tends to after one too many glasses of chardonnay. When, for the third time, Grace tells him that she thinks someone has drugged her, Danny realizes that there must have been a whole lot more in that half a glass than either of them had suspected. 

It’s the hardest choice of his life to put Grace on hold long enough to call Steve and say, “Call EMS.” He worries that she won’t be there when he switches back or that something will have happened to her in the thirty seconds that he talks to Steve. But she’s there, waiting and scared and more than a little confused, and Danny swallows past the lump in his throat that forms as the worst case scenarios ratchet up his anxiety.

Finally, Danny pulls up outside the house but he doesn’t make it to the driveway before Steve is pulling up, too. Steve runs up alongside Danny, but doesn’t say anything, just puts a hand on Danny’s shoulder for support as they bound up the front steps.

The moment they’re inside, all faces turn to them. Steve announces, “5-0,” and some white boy in the living room makes a break for the lanai.

“I got him,” Steve shouts. “Just get Grace.”

“Upstairs bathroom,” Danny demands, and a wide-eyed girl with a second-degree sunburn across her questionably covered teenage chest gives him directions.

Danny knocks on the door quietly. “Monkey? You in there?”

Instantly, the lock clicks, the door opens, and Danny finds himself with an armful of crying Grace. “Danno,” she sobs.

“Hey, monkey. I’m here. I got you. You’re safe,” Danny soothes. He holds her tight, rubbing his hands over her back in slow circles. He wants to stand there forever, never let her go, but Danny can hear the commotion downstairs and it sounds like the cavalry has arrived. Grace needs medical help; Danny’s seen too many people who were overdosed on GHB or rohypnol and then left in ditches, allies, and dumpsters. 

“Hey, sweetie. There are some nice people downstairs that are gonna take us to the hospital to make sure everything is alright. Let’s get out of here,” he urges softly. 

Grace nods against his shoulder and then lets go. “Okay, Danno.”

Carefully, Danny helps her navigate the stairs, and in the living room Lou, Tani, and Junior seem to have magically appeared to round up the rest of the party goers. Steve is nowhere to be seen but from somewhere out back, Danny can hear him shouting someone into a confession. There have been so many times that Danny has appreciated the people he works with, but at this moment there doesn’t seem to be a way to repay them. All Danny has to do is help Grace into the back of an ambulance and they’ll take care of the rest.

The paramedic in the back looks serious, and that, more than anything, terrifies Danny. Before they’re back on the mainroad, Grace has an EKG and an IV. 

“Just in case,” the paramedic tells Danny, but it doesn’t do a lot to ease his worry. 

By the time they make it to the hospital, Grace has thrown up twice and asked where she is and why she’s there at least five more. Danny can’t do more than try not to cry in front of her and help provide information to the doctors and nurses. 

But the thing that drives home how close she was to something truly horrible is how compliant she is. Grace hates hospitals, not just because Danny and Steve are always getting hurt, but because what happened when Charlie was sick was enough to give anyone anxiety. But instead of panicking, or even protesting, she just lets the nurse stick her again for a blood draw. When they ask her to strip down and put on a gown, she takes off her clothes in front of Danny without a second thought, something she’s been too private to even consider since she was eight. 

When she wobbles, Danny catches her, still topless, and she smiles dopily at him. “Thanks, Danno.” 

Danny smiles in a desperate attempt not to cry, and settles her on the bed where he can tie the gown closed behind her. From there, there isn’t much to say. Grace just sort of zones out, too tired and confused to make conversation, too disoriented to give Danny any useful information about who was at the party, much less who might have done this to her. 

About the time she falls asleep, something that has Danny staring intently at the monitor above the bed, someone quietly knocks on the door. Danny expects whoever it is to just barge on in, the way all medical professionals seem to do, but instead the door stays closed and after a few seconds more they knock again. Danny rubs his hands over his face and goes to answer it.

“Hey, Danny.” 

It’s Steve standing there with a look on his face like maybe it’s his own daughter in the bed and not his partner’s. Danny swings the door a little wider to let him in.

“She’s ‘sleeping it off,’” Danny informs him with air quotes. “The doctor said that she’s not in any danger from the dose she received but they still want to keep her for observation until tomorrow.”

Steve nods, and Danny can see the way Steve watches her sleeping form with same sort of grief-stricken terror that he’s been feeling since his phone first rang. 

Danny waves his hand, hoping to deflect having to deal with Steve’s emotions on top of his own. “Don’t, uh, don’t work yourself up. She’s fine. Nothing happened.”

Steve turns, pinning Danny with a look that says, _You can’t be serious._

“Danny, she could have-”

“Don’t-” Danny starts far too loudly for someone in a hospital room. “Don’t tell me what could have happened,” he continues more quietly. “I know. It’s all I can think about. Just- She’s fine. Okay?”

“Yeah, Danno. She’s fine. It’s not okay, but she’s fine,” Steve allows.

Danny runs his fingers through his hair and grips tightly. His skin feels two sizes too small and he wants to scream and punch a wall and cry and maybe just take a nap all at once. Instead, he asks, “Did you get him?”

Steve nods. “Yeah. It was the runner. We found several more tablets on him when we searched him.”

“Did you break his face or at least dangle him off of a building?” Danny asks.

Steve shakes his head. “No, Danny. We did everything by the book — no shark cages or car hoods. We wanted to make sure that the case was airtight; force the DA to prosecute.”

Part of Danny wants to be pissed because Steve knows how to fuck someone up six ways to Sunday and right now Danny doesn’t want anything other than to beat that other kid to a pulp. But Danny knows that doing that would only provide temporary satisfaction. In the end, the kid needs to go to jail, get him off the streets and away from young and vulnerable women. 

“Thanks, Steve. I mean it.”

“I know you wish I’d killed him,” Steve says with a chuckle.

“I mean, I’m not gonna lie and say the thought didn’t cross my mind.”

Steve smiles and puts an arm around Danny’s shoulders. And that’s enough. All of Danny’s tightly held anxiety and fear and unrealized grief shake out of him in a rush. Before he even has time to wipe away the first tears, Steve’s pulling Danny close, his stupid grabby octopus arms encircling Danny and holding him there until he’s forced to cry on Steve instead of retreating to a bathroom stall. Part of him is indignant but most of him is just glad he’s got someone with him. 

It doesn’t take Danny long to get a grip and Steve, for once in his life, takes a cue and lets go. 

“Lou and the guys can handle things. I’m gonna stay if you don’t mind,” Steve says.

Danny nods, grateful. “That’d be nice.”

They pull their matching plastic chairs alongside the bed and sit, waiting for Grace to wake up.


End file.
